The Birds’ Calendar 
in the winter wren is comically short, and 
standing quite erect gives the little creature a 
peculiarly pert and saucy air, which seemed to 
Shakespeare so salient a feature when he alluded 
to 
‘* The wren with little quill.” 
There is an electric suddenness in the motion 
of a wren which makes you suspect the identity 
of the bird before you clearly see it—almost 
literally ‘‘ as quick asa flash.’’ It isa specimen 
of highly concentrated nervous energy, bottled 
almost to bursting, explosively relieved in ac- 
tion and song—a bit of champagne with wings. 
The winter wren is the more northern species, 
the house wren the more southern, although 
there is no propriety in designating the latter as 
a house wren, as it is no more inclined to do- 
mestication than the other. 
9 
A migration-wave in the second week brought 
the yellow-throated vireos, the chestnut-sided 
warblers (male and female), another thrush— 
the olive-backed—the blue-winged yellow war- 
bler, and the indigo-bird. By the middle of 
the month our constant winter friends, the 
white-throated sparrows, had become a thing of 
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